Alarming reports about serious consequences of antibiotic resistance

Tag : resistance
Vital components of modern medicine such asmajor surgery, organ transplantation, and cancer chemotherapy willbe threatened if antibiotic resistance is not tackled urgently,warn experts on bmj.com today.
A concerted global response is needed to address rising rates ofbacterial resistance caused by the use and abuse of antibiotics or"we will return to the pre-antibiotic era", writeProfessor Otto Cars and colleagues in an editorial.
All antibiotic use "uses up" some of the effectiveness ofthat antibiotic, diminishing the ability to use it in the future,write the authors, and antibiotics can no longer be considered as arenewable source.
They point out that existing antibiotics are losing their effect atan alarming pace, while the development of new antibiotics isdeclining. More than a dozen new classes of antibiotics weredeveloped between 1930 and 1970, but only two new classes have beendeveloped since then.
According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention andControl, the most important disease threat in Europe is frommicro-organisms that have become resistant to antibiotics. As farback as 2000, the World Health Organisation was calling for amassive effort to address the problem of antimicrobial resistanceto prevent the "health catastrophe of tomorrow".
So why has so little been done to address the problem ofresistance, ask the authors?
Antibiotics are over prescribed, still illegally sold over thecounter in some EU countries, and self medication with leftovermedicines is commonplace.
There are alarming reports about serious consequences of antibiotic resistance from all around the world. However, there is still adearth of data on the magnitude and burden of antibioticresistance, or its economic impact on individuals, health care, andsociety. This, they suggest, may explain why there has been littleresponse to this public health threat from politicians, publichealth workers, and consumers.
In addition, there are significant scientific challenges but fewincentives to developing new antibiotics, state the authors.
The authors believe that priority must be given to the mosturgently needed antibiotics and incentives given for developingantibacterials with new mechanisms of action. In addition,"the use of new antibiotics must be safeguarded by regulationsand practices that ensure rational use, to avoid repeating themistakes we have made by overusing the old ones", they say.
They point out that reducing consumer demand could be the strongestforce to driving change - individuals must be educated tounderstand that their choice to use an antibiotic will affect thepossibility of effectively treating bacterial infections in otherpeople.
But, they claim, the ultimate responsibility for coordination andresources rests with national governments, WHO and otherinternational stakeholders.
Not only is there an urgent need for up-to-date information on thelevel of antibiotic resistance, but also for evidence of effectiveinterventions for the prevention and control of antibioticresistance at national and local levels, while more focus is neededon infectious diseases, they conclude.
Contacts:
Otto Cars, Department of Medical Sciences, Uppsala University,Uppsala, Sweden
Email: otto.cars@medsci.uu.se
Goran Tomson, International Health Systems Research, IHCAR DivInternational Health, Stockholm, Swede
Email: Goran.Tomson@ki.se
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